Time is a leaders most valuable resource. The way a leader uses their time, demonstrates to the people around them what’s really important. The management of interruptions is critical to ensure you make effective use of this valuable resource. The article “Fighting a War Against Distraction” emphasise the devastating impact that interruptions have on our productivity:
“The average knowledge worker switches tasks every three minutes, and, once distracted, a worker takes nearly a half-hour to resume the original task, according to Gloria Mark, a leader in the new field of ‘interruption science.’
Interruptions and the requisite recovery time now consume 28 percent of a worker’s day, the business research firm Basex estimates. The risks are clear. As one top executive told me, ‘Knowledge work can’t be done in sound bites.’
Employees who are routinely interrupted and lack time to focus are more apt to feel frustrated, pressured and stressed, according to separate studies by Ms. Mark and the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit group.
Under deadline pressure, workers produce creative work on days when they are focused, not when they are scattered and interrupted, a study published in the Harvard Business Review found.”
As leaders it’s therefore essential for us to manage our time and our interruptions carefully.
Technorati Tags: Getting Things Done, Time Management, Productivity, Interruption, Research, Lifehack
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Terrific. Once I started keeping a detailed time log with “time on e-mail” I saw how keeping e-mail on distracted me from being more productive. It’s not just the interruption and getting my mind back on task. The issue is that the e-mails drag me into spending more than I want on e-mail. Setting limits on e-mail communication has made me more productive. Thanks for the post, Kay
Under deadline pressure, workers produce creative work on days when they are focused, not when they are scattered and interrupted, a study published in the Harvard Business Review found.
I find this interesting that they include scattered in the above sentence. Does this mean that they should be colocated but not interrupt each other. I normally see an open workspace as a positive thing especially for me as a leader. I am available for questions or what ever need the knowledge workers have from me. Although I sometimes have to stay home to do some of my tasks that require longer periods of concentration (like writing those boring reports for management).
My reading is that ’scattered’ describes a mental state rather than a physical state.
@Thommy – absolutely. keeping precious leader’s time intact is not the ultimate goal. the ultimate goal is the productivity of the whole team. so a certain balance between distraction and concentration should be looked for and observed.
Tom DeMarco’s Peopleware also had good things to say about the cost of int interruptions and distractions.
I set up my team so they were sitting in adjacent cubicles so they could collaborate.. but I actually moved to the other side of the floor because my team kept wanting to discuss small details with me which made it impossible for me to focus.
I told then to keep me in the loop by all means but I trusted them with thinking through day to day tasks.
I’m a fan of batch and focus.